rating the DVD

On Tuesday, the Carolina Hurricanes Stanley Cup Champions DVD was released.

Naturally, I bought it.

The DVD features:

• NBC's feed of the Stanley Cup Finals game 7, in its entirety and without commercials or intermission stuff
  
• Highlights from the Cup Finals series
  
• Highlights from the Eastern Conference finals against Buffalo
  
• a gloss-over of the Eastern Conference semifinals against New Jersey
  
• highlights of the first round with Montréal
  
• gloss-over of the regular season
  
• snippets of interviews with key players like Aaron Ward, Doug Weight, Mark Recchi, Bret Hedican, Mike Commodore, Eric Staal, Rod Brind'Amour, Cam Ward
  
• a "ride to the game" with Kevyn Adams featuring several minutes of footage of his private life.
  
• a few "vignettes" about some of the players
  
• interview footage with Canes radio and TV personalities
  
• a short feature about Peter Laviolette's "Relentless" campaign to raise funds and awareness for leukemia research

Overall the DVD is good but not great. I can't imagine anyone buying it unless they're a Canes fan, so I won't even qualify it in that way.

The game seven feed is good, but they tried too hard to compress it for time. Some of the replays and analysis was cut out. Also, I kind of miss the intermission reports. However, it's nice to have it on DVD. Now I can clear my DVR.

I wish there was more about each series, and would have been willing to shell out the dough for a multi-disc set. It particular, there was virtually nothing about the New Jersey Series. I might have been willing to sacrifice the regular season highlights for more focus on each playoff series if they had to keep it to a one disc package.

One other thing I wish there had been more of is some of the audio clips from Canes radio guy Chuck Kaiton. He's one of the best in the business, and is in the broadcaster's hall of fame. They only gave us a few of his calls. Specifically, I really wish they would have included his call of Viva's empty netter to secure the win ...

"And he wins the Stanley Cup!!! Justin Williams has just won the Stanley Cup for the Carolina Hurricanes, in all likelihood!"

The "vignettes" are horrible. They devote about 60 seconds to Ray Whitney, Mike Commodore, Eric Staal, Cam Ward. I would just assume throw all those out.

The thing about Kevyn Adams is great, and almost makes the thing worth it on its own. About five minutes of talking with him about game day, riding in the car with him. One of the best moments from that section is when his little daughter Emerson is singing "Tomorrow" for the camera. She's really cute, and in that little film you can tell that K-Ads is a really good dad. Also, the way he lifted her up on his shoulders during the Cup celebration and did a lap with her. The video doesn't show that, but anyone who was in the RBC Center that night could see it. As a side for those of you who have the DVD, check out the dog while Emmy is singing. I wonder what he's staring at.

Another really cool moment from the DVD also involves Kevyn and Emerson Adams. It's in the very beginning of the disc in the middle of that montage. He's hugging her and telling her that he loves her. He's headed off to some game during the playoffs. She just says "good luck, daddy". I don't know what it is, but I think it's the cutest thing in the world.

My other favorite moment of the DVD is when they're talking to Doug Weight about Cam Ward. Specifically, they're talking about Cam coming in off the bench to start game 3 of that series when the Canes backs were really against the wall. Dougie says that he was nervous, and especially so for Cam. He says something like:

I was nervous for him, coming in like that. He was giving me winks and stuff at the faceoffs and I was thinking "This isn't right. I'm the one who's nervous, and he's calming me down."

Overall, I like the DVD, but I would have done a few things differently. Don't get me wrong... I've watched it twice already, and I'll watch it many more times, and I do think it's worth it. Overall, I give it a B.

I'll be looking forward to a different DVD (or a set) put together by the Canesvision/Gale Force Media folks. They put one together for our 2002 SCF loss, so I see no reason for them not to do one for our win. No word yet, though.